1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for performing a print request operation without designating in advance a printer to be used.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a printing system in which a plurality of printers is connected via a network has been widely used. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-271354 discloses a technology for performing proxy printing in which, even if a printer fails to operate, another printer performs a printing operation instead, so that a print request from a user can be processed without fail. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-048434 discloses a technology for performing confidential printing in which it is assured that only an authorized user can obtain print result from a printer.
However, with the above technologies, it is necessary to designate a printer for the printing operation when the user performs a print request operation, or register a plurality of printers for the proxy printing in advance. Therefore, after the user performs the print request operation, the user cannot use another printer for the printing operation instead of the designated printer. Moreover, it is hard for the user to use an unregistered printer even if the user needs to use the printer with urgency.
For example, in a situation where a printer is malfunctioning when a user tries to print out documents for a meeting held at a meeting room in a separate building just before the meeting is started, it is efficient for the user to print out the documents from a printer near the meeting room. However, with the above technologies, the user needs to know about the printer installed near the meeting room in advance, and confirm that the printer is currently in operation before using the printer. Specifically, in a printing system shown in FIG. 1, when a user prints out documents on the floor A3, the user usually uses a printer 301b installed on the floor A3. However, if the printer 301b is out of order, and the meeting will start soon, the user needs to use another printer instead of the printer 301b immediately. Even in such a case, the user needs to check which printer on which floor can be used in advance, and therefore the user requires unnecessary time for checking on the printer.
Moreover, with the above technologies, print data is transmitted from a personal computer (PC) to a printer or a printer server before the printing operation is performed. Because the print data is spooled in the printer or the printer server until the printing operation is completed or cancelled, it is difficult to assure the data security.